It took me awhile, but I liked it. The biggest things it had going against it were A) They aired it right after Honmamon so naturally it's going to suffer in comparison. And B) I'd say a good 75% of this drama takes place in interiors, the gym, the school, Nazuna's apartment. Lots of indirect lighting. But they must have been doing something right, it did spawn a sequel.

Edit: I forgot to mention Shiro Ito and Mariko Kaga as Nazuna's parents. They are a great team!

ralphm1999 wrote:

I thought WNA was exceptinally boring. * months of watching a less than pretty gal sitting in a kitchen mopping or in the school cafe mopping or mopping. No real romance or comedy.... just an endless blah...

I can understand why you would be bored with this one Ralph. No real cuties for you in this one.

gaijinmark wrote:

It took me awhile, but I liked it. The biggest things it had going against it were A) They aired it right after Honmamon so naturally it's going to suffer in comparison. And B) I'd say a good 75% of this drama takes place in interiors, the gym, the school, Nazuna's apartment. Lots of indirect lighting. But they must have been doing something right, it did spawn a sequel. Edit: I forgot to mention Shiro Ito and Mariko Kaga as Nazuna's parents. They are a great team!

This was one of my first Japanese dramas that I watched as a series week after week on TV. I liked Nazuna's get-up-and-go attitude and spunk. I loved her tenacity. I also loved, loved, loved her son Taiyo. How cute was he? I never realized that so much of this drama took place in interiors gaijinmark. You are right it still looked good! Didn't Nazuna leave a seaside town. I liked those scenes. Another reason I liked this drama so much was because of two good looking guys; Kento played by Tsutsui Michitaka and Nanzo's next door neighbor played by Kusakari Masao. For a slightly older guy he is dreamy!! He played the male cosmetics salesman. In terms of humor I thought the part of Kento's father always dressed in some type of glitter vest was hilarious. This was a sweet drama that showed the need for a change in perspective and treatment of single mothers in Japan's society at the time.

P.S. I don't even like watching boxing at all and I still liked this drama.

I agree with everything you said Enna Tomoka Tabata was great as the spunky Nazuna! And you had the couple that ran the ice house, the scatter-brained husband and his wife who was REALLY in charge, the old lady that ran the coffe shop next door having her affair with the old fisherman from Ooma, those two were hilarious! Nazuna's blonde headed brother and his truck driver friend. Lots of good characters in this one.

Sounds like another Asadora winner.

One of the things I like about Asadora is the absence of ageism.

In the large ensemble casts which make up a typical Asadora, there are at least as many (and usually more) characters over 30 than under 30. And a good number of them are over 50.

This reflects the true nature of the Japanese population.

Kudos to NHK for doing this.

gaijinmark wrote:

I agree with everything you said Enna Tomoka Tabata was great as the spunky Nazuna! And you had the couple that ran the ice house, the scatter-brained husband and his wife who was REALLY in charge, the old lady that ran the coffe shop next door having her affair with the old fisherman from Ooma, those two were hilarious! Nazuna's blonde headed brother and his truck driver friend. Lots of good characters in this one.

Ooh I had forgotten about all of those fun characters GM. Thanks for reminding me.

shin2 wrote:

Sounds like another Asadora winner. One of the things I like about Asadora is the absence of ageism. In the large ensemble casts which make up a typical Asadora, there are at least as many (and usually more) characters over 30 than under 30. And a good number of them are over 50. This reflects the true nature of the Japanese population. Kudos to NHK for doing this.

Good point shin2! In so many of our soap operas here most of the actors are young and super attractive. Maybe that is one of the reasons I enjoy the asadors so much, they reflect a broader view of the actual population that is watching those shows.

Ran across this video while looking for something else (isn't that how it always happens?!), Tomoko Tabata returns to Oma, Aomori where a lot of "Watashi no Aozora" was shot, 15 years later. Obviously, when they were making the drama it was a very big deal to the locals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvNElny9nu0

But wait, there's more! They play the theme song over the city loudspeaker system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwqYtHxCLIQ